re: Progress of new New Orleans airport

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Because by the time you renovate the existing terminal to accommodate wider body planes, consolidate security and concessions, and a whole host of other changes (while the airport still has to operate, mind you), you wind up spending even more money than a new terminal.

An airport is a lot more than just a building. It's a high tech 24/7 logistical center.

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Well, I wouldn't call MSY a 24/7 operation unless you're counting security guards at 3:00am. 20/7, maybe.

Can't wide body aircraft already use Concourses C and D. Not that Southwest has any wide body aircraft, but they could possibly be accommodated on the east end of Concourse B.

Why do we need to consolidate security? Will MSY's TSA agents suddenly become more efficient because the line is longer? I see a single choke point, rather than three separate checkpoints, leading to more delays, not fewer.

Why do concessions need to be consolidated? I'm at the airport to fly, not eat.

Renovating an old facility is always complicated, especially when it has to remain in operation. It's a good thing we just got through doing a complete renovation about 5 or 6 years ago.

A new terminal will be shiny and nicer, but it won't increase tourism and will only raise tickets prices (because you KNOW landing fees will increase). Traffic is going to be a full on Mongolian clusterfrick of epic proportions. This project is unnecessary, especially in view of how broke the city and state both are.

Concourse A is full of asbestos and only had maybe 7 or 8 gates.

I looked at the facilities map on flymsy.com. According to the website, B has 10 gates, C has 15, and D has 12. That's 37 gates. I'm not sure where this "22 rented gates" figure came from, not do I understand why 30 gates are expected to be rented at the new terminal. Do they expect a ~40% increase in travel because they have a new terminal?

But if the existing terminal has 37 gates on the concourses in service and only 22 gates are rented, wtf are we doing building a new terminal?

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I know there was talk about using a tunnel under the east/west runway for access, but there were security concerns.

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Well there has been a tunnel under the east-west runway for years and it's just been a money drain.

LINK

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If they're building a whole new rental center, that makes this boondoggle even dumber.

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Yeah, but EFFICIENCY!!!!!!1!!! It's not like the politicians have any real stake in it; they get to crow about new airport and jobs and then will be gone by the time most poeple realize we spent almost a billion on renovations in the 15 years BEFORE building a new billion dollar airport.

I am still trying to figure out how having one security checkpoint is an improvement.

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Plaza is dead in the water from everything I have heard. Will be years unless South Market/Standard goes way better than expected. Which doesn't look likely.

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The Standard is going really well and Domain is about to unveil the construction of another tower at the end of 2018. Jaeger will break ground on the Plaza in 2020.

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I am still trying to figure out how having one security checkpoint is an improvement.

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Say you have three checkpoints with 15 employees each. Yet one concourse has 10 flights going out at that time, the second has 4, and the third has 6. The line is going to move slower at the first concourse. But the average wait time would improve with one checkpoint.

“In 2016 it served 11,139,421 passengers, an all-time record for the airport and 4.4% more than 2015.”

11.1 million is more passengers than pre Katrina. I wonder what the final tally for 2017 will be.

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and that the FAA is part of the the Dept of Transportation, why did they force the rental car facility to be moved?

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Some bureaucrat deemed that Rental Car Facilities too close to the terminal were a threat to airport security. Which is why you've seen nearly every one of them moved a distance away from the main terminal. The DOT provided "9/11 security grants" to do such.

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Say you have three checkpoints with 15 employees each. Yet one concourse has 10 flights going out at that time, the second has 4, and the third has 6. The line is going to move slower at the first concourse. But the average wait time would improve with one checkpoint.

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This is not sound logic. The airport has two concourses which you can walk to the other concourse past security. Have two security points opposite each other (like in Indy). It will load balance itself. You never hear "its better to have a single point of failure/bottleneck". Redundancy is a good thing.

While i despise KC's airport, you get past security in a few mins because of how many checkpoints they have to have because of their horrible design of the airport. Reduce the amount of people going through a single point and you will have happier travelers.